


Not As Bad As He Seemed

by svtstarlight



Category: VIXX
Genre: Happy belated Halloween, M/M, Was Supposed To Be Short, and did I mention there are dead people in this?, but kinda didn't end up being very short in the end, creepy story is creepy, hongbin has anger issues, well there are
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 22:54:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8508712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/svtstarlight/pseuds/svtstarlight
Summary: Last night I saw upon a stairA little man who was not thereHe was not there again todayOh how I wish he'd go away.  Leo meets a stranger after moving into a new flat after his parents' deaths. Make that two strangers, with interesting stories to tell. But what do they have to do with the man Leo's best friend, Ravi, lives with, and may just happen to be in love with?(aka my attempt at scary/creepy without actually killing anyone who didn't start out the story dead. *coughs*)





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was for my attempt at holding a Halloween+VIXX-related (short) story challenge (on AFF) that didn't really work out, though I wasn't actually entering it, as such. I only finished it at around 6.30 this morning. (yep, I suck at this too LOL) And it's kind of not really short either, but I tried. Sadly, our baby Hyukkie isn't in this one. (sorry, Hyukkie... :( ) Also, done as part of NaNoWriMo....

Hefting one of the last of the few boxes of his possessions, Leo sighed and looked around the tiny room which was all he'd been able to afford to rent on his miniscule salary. He wasn't able to work as much as he'd have liked, given he was still a student (and would be for at least another term, if not longer...), and it meant that this little one-roomed flat was all he could afford. Turning to his best friend, Ravi, he smiled faintly. 

"At least that's our exercise quotient for the next few weeks," he joked feebly as the younger man just gave him a dirty look, sprawled on the futon on the floor and looking exhausted. "You won't need to waste your money going to the gym..." 

"I don't waste my money," Ravi replied, kicking out at Leo, though he missed thanks to Leo's nimble jump out of the way, though it nearly sent him into one of his boxes. "It makes me look good, and everyone knows it." He looked smug, as well he might; he wasn't known as one of the best-looking men with the best body on campus for nothing. If only someone could do something about that ridiculous hair cut... 

Pushing himself up onto his elbows, Ravi sighed. "You're sure you won't move in with me and Hongbin? I'm sure his parents won't mind..." 

Ravi lived with another one of their friends, Hongbin, whose parents owned the house they lived in. It was small, but Ravi insisted there was always room for one more. Leo, on the other hand, preferred to live alone, and being a proud man, wanted to be able to stand on his own two feet. Since losing his parents, Leo had stubbornly insisted on doing everything on his own, to prove that he was capable of looking after himself and wasn't falling apart like everyone had expected him to. At least, not in public, where everyone could see him. In private, it was an entirely different matter. 

Shaking his head, Leo offered Ravi a hand to help him to his feet. "No, thanks for the offer, but you know I can't," he murmured apologetically. "And you know why..." 

Looking unhappy, Ravi surveyed the small room. "I just... we don't like the idea of you living on your own in a place like this," he said, running a hand through his sweaty hair in frustration. "And those stairs are killer. How many times did we almost kill ourselves on them?" He glared at the doorway. "This place really should be condemned..." 

"But then where would I live?" Leo pointed out softly, with a resigned shrug. "We both know I can't afford anything else. And I'm sure it's not really that bad." 

He looked around. It didn't seem to be too terribly bad, even if the building was positively ancient. The stairs had been steep, to be sure, but hopefully it would discourage anyone out to rob the place. If any self-respecting thieves even thought to try, that was. The wallpaper had seen better days, but at least it was clean and reasonably well-kept. Not damp and drafty like some of the other flats they'd both seen over the past few weeks. 

"And there's a shop underneath," Leo added wryly. "That means it's not too dead around here. There have to be some customers for it to be able to stay open, surely..." It wasn't his kind of shop, being the sort of strange place he vaguely recalled his grandparents visiting every time his parents took him when he'd been a very young child, full of musty old packages of leaves, roots, powders, and other strange medicinal things that he could never hope to understand. 

Leo shivered suddenly, rubbing at his arms as he felt a draft. "It's starting to get cold," he murmured, glancing worriedly out the small window at the sky. "You should go before Hongbin calls, wondering where you are." 

Ravi smirked. "He knows better than that," he grinned, though he dusted off his clothes and headed for the door as he spoke. "He can't act like a jealous boyfriend when we're not even dating." 

"That doesn't stop him from trying," Leo pointed out with a grin of his own as he saw Ravi out. "Just be careful on those stairs..." He watched as Ravi left, making sure his friend made it all the way down to the bottom safely, and then out the door before closing the door to his tiny flat with a sigh that wasn't quite relief, but wasn't quite sorrow either. 

 

It didn't take long for Leo to make himself at home in his new flat, though he didn't tend to spend very much time there other than to sleep. The place, though small, clean, and otherwise inoffensive-seeming, had started to creep him out, especially at night. He couldn't put his finger on when it had started, or how, but he just knew he didn't like it. 

Coming in one night after a long shift at the café where he worked part-time, Leo was surprised to see a young man sitting on the stairs as he entered the building and began to climb, coming to a halt about halfway up as he stared in shock at the intruder who smiled at him. 

Tempted to push his way past, something in him told Leo that this would not only be bad manners, but would just generally be a bad thing to do, so he shoved down his irritation and nodded a greeting to the stranger. 

"Can I help you?" he asked warily, careful to stay where he was until he was sure the other man was harmless. He certainly _looked_ harmless, but Leo knew full well looks could often be deceiving. "Are you waiting for someone?" He gestured to the other flats in the building, though he didn't know who lived in them and didn't really care, either. 

The young man looked at him thoughtfully, then smiled again. "You could say that," he said, his voice sending shivers down Leo's spine. It wasn't that the stranger was trying to sound creepy, Leo suspected. He just sounded strange to him, his voice nothing like he'd ever heard before. It made him feel things he wasn't sure he wanted to feel. "What about you? Are you waiting for anyone?" 

Blinking at the strange question, Leo shook his head, and with the pleasantries now dispensed with (he hoped), he did his best to hurry past, ignoring the way the other man's eyes followed him up the stairs and to his flat. Given there were only four flats in the whole place, it wasn't like he could really avoid showing him which was his, much to Leo's dismay, but hopefully he wouldn't bother him. Once he'd unlocked his door, a procedure that took less than five seconds, Leo looked back and stopped, his eyes widening. 

The young man who'd been sitting on the stairs was gone, yet the door at the bottom hadn't opened (Leo would have heard and felt it, if it had), nor had he gone behind Leo to any of the other flats in the building. Startled and not a little creeped out, Leo looked around warily, then hurried into his flat and slammed the door closed behind him, leaning against it with his eyes closed as he tried not to panic. What the hell had just happened? Where had that guy gone? For that matter, who was he and where had he come from? 

His heart pounding and his breaths coming in short pants, Leo sank down onto his bed, shaking his head in disbelief. There had to be some rational explanation for what had just happened. Maybe Leo had missed the main door opening somehow while he'd been busy unlocking his flat? It was far more likely that the man had gone into one of the other flats without him noticing. He'd been slight and quiet enough that he could have done it, Leo thought to himself. That had to be the answer. 

Having decided on that, Leo quickly got ready for bed and did his best to fall asleep as quickly as possible, exhausted beyond belief by the events of the day, and the brief scare he'd given himself over the stranger on the stairs. He'd have to have a word with the other occupants though; they weren't supposed to allow strangers into the flats, since it was a security risk, and the area they lived in wasn't the greatest as it was. The landlord didn't want any trouble, and Leo himself didn't want any trouble. 

 

Eventually falling asleep, Leo quickly forgot about the stranger on the stairs until the next night, when he came back from work to find him sitting on the stairs again, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. 

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" he asked, standing at the bottom of the stairs, by this time too wary to even think of making his way up to his flat. "You don't belong here." 

"Actually, I do," the young man replied quietly, biting his lip as he looked away. "More so than you do, I'd reckon..." He shrugged. "It's not like I can leave, even if I wanted to," he added with an off-handed wave of his hand. 

"Why's that?" Leo asked, his curiosity piqued. This guy didn't seem threatening; for all that he was creepy as hell, he was also pleasant on the eyes and ears. But Leo didn't want to take any chances, staying where he was until he was satisfied about the other man's intentions. "You still haven't said who you are." 

The man's grin widened as he looked down at Leo. "You haven't exactly told me who you are," he pointed out with a smirk. "How can you expect me to tell you who I am without introducing yourself?" 

Growing tired of the circular nature the conversation was starting to take, Leo began to head back outside. He would have to call Ravi and ask if he could stay at his and Hongbin's place for the night until he could work out what to do about this guy. He was going to go crazy if he had to stay here and talk to him for much longer. 

"Don't go," the man said, something in his voice stopping Leo from leaving. "Please. You're the first person I've been able to talk to in a long time. Don't leave..." 

"Then stop talking in riddles and just answer my damned questions," Leo snapped irritably, feeling awkward when the man's eyes widened at the tone of his voice, the way he leaned back almost as though afraid of him making him feel even worse. "Look, I am tired and need to sleep. I don't have the energy to play twenty questions with you, no matter how pretty you are or how nice you sound." 

The man's expression brightened. "You think I'm pretty?" he asked, looking flattered. "Thank you..." A light blush stained his pale cheeks. "Nobody's called me pretty in so long..." He sounded sad as he looked at Leo, and then away. "My name... is Hakyeon. I've been here for so long I've kind of forgotten how long..." 

Raising an eyebrow, Leo looked bemused. "You don't look that old, Hakyeon," he murmured, giving the other man a critical look. His clothes looked out-dated, like he hadn't been clothes shopping since perhaps Leo's grandfather's day, but other than that... "Though your clothes..." 

"What's wrong with my clothes?" Hakyeon said defensively, pulling at the hem of his white button-up shirt self-consciously. "They're new. Or they were..." He bit at his lip and looked away again, something in his eyes that threw Leo. 

"They were new, when?" Leo prompted with a snort. "About fifty years ago, maybe. My grandfather used to wear that sort of thing... but not now. Most guys our age wear jeans and t-shirts, unless they work in an office..." 

Hakyeon blinked at Leo. "Has it been that long?" he mused, almost to himself. "Really?" He looked up at the top of the stairs, and Leo's eyes followed almost automatically, recoiling at what he saw. Another man stood at the top of the stairs, white-blond hair contrasting with a dark turtleneck and dark-coloured trousers. The second stranger's hands were in his pockets, instantly setting Leo's teeth on edge. "Has it really been that long, Jaehwannie?" 

Jaehwan looked at Leo, then at Hakyeon, and shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted, his voice having a different quality to it than Hakyeon's. It was as though he was used to being a lot louder, but was moderating it for Leo's benefit. "I don't remember." 

"Wait, there are two of you?" Leo asked, starting to shiver. This Jaehwan really gave him the creeps. "Who are you?" 

"More like what are we." Jaehwan shrugged, though he didn't move from his position at the top of the stairs. "You haven't figured it out yet?" He looked at Hakyeon, a smirk on his face. "Is it me or have people gotten stupider over the years since we've been stuck here?" 

"Be nice," Hakyeon admonished Jaehwan, flapping a hand at him and then turning to Leo. "Though he's right. You didn't figure it out last night?" He sighed. "I thought it was pretty obvious when I disappeared practically under your nose..."

Going pale, Leo sat down on the bottom step, feeling faint. "You're not serious, are you?" he asked, his voice softer than usual. "You're not... are you?" 

"If you were about to say ghosts, then yes," Jaehwan said, shrugging again, though he gave an apologetic glance at Hakyeon when he gave him a sad look. "Hakyeon prefers to be called a spirit, or whatever, but I don't care. I'm dead, so it can't hurt me anymore." His tone was slightly bitter, which told Leo that it probably did hurt, but he was trying to hide it. "But yes. We've both been here too long without anyone to talk to who would give us the time of day. I don't think anyone else could actually see us, except you..." 

He looked thoughtful. "And maybe that cute friend of yours who came around that first day..." he added as Leo's eyes narrowed. 

"Ravi's taken, even if he denies it to everyone and their dog," Leo said quietly. "So don't get any ideas..." He ignored the insulted look on Jaehwan's face and turned to Hakyeon. "How did you both end up here in the first place? Did you die at the same time?" 

Hakyeon shook his head sadly. "No," he murmured without looking at either Leo or Jaehwan. "I've been here the longest. I don't really remember when Jaehwan came, though, but it can't have been that long after..." He glanced at Leo and it made him shiver, the look in Hakyeon's eyes. "I heard what your friend said, by the way," he added, his voice barely above a whisper. "These stairs are indeed killer..." 

"Why do you think we're stuck here?" Jaehwan's voice was mocking. "We died here. On these killer stairs." His handsome features twisted angrily. "Murdered..."

Leo's breath caught. "You were both... murdered?" he asked, pressing his back against the wall. He'd thought it must have been an accident, after all, these stairs were clearly hazardous. "But why? And do you know by whom?" 

"Well, would you look at that?" Jaehwan drawled, looking down at Leo with a scornful look on his face. "A young'un who actually knows his grammar. And here I thought they were all stupid nowadays..." 

"Jaehwan, please," Hakyeon pleaded softly, looking up at the other man, though Leo couldn't see his expression so he couldn't tell what exactly was passing between the two of them, just that something clearly was, as Jaehwan bit his lip and looked away, his expression changing to something a little less hostile. "He's not responsible for our deaths. And certainly not mine..." 

Jaehwan's body jerked in reaction to Hakyeon's words and his expression became closed off. "It wasn't my fault," he muttered sullenly, still facing away from them. "I didn't kill you. You know that. I had nothing to do with it." 

"You were there," Hakyeon said softly and Jaehwan's shoulders slumped in defeat. "I know you were, no matter how much you want to deny it to yourself. You didn't kill me, and I honestly don't believe there was anything you could have done to stop him from killing me, but you were still there when he did it." 

"For all the good that did me," Jaehwan said harshly, stepping back from the top of the stairs until all Leo could see were his eyes, angry and full of pain. "Because apparently he decided he couldn't trust me to keep my mouth shut, so he did the same to me as he did to you, and you know that as well as I do. So where does that leave us?" 

"Dead," Hakyeon said quietly, looking down at his hands. "The same as we've been for the past however long." He sighed and shrugged. "And I dare say he's dead by now as well..." 

Leo felt faint and ill, unable to look at either of them as they spoke, apparently unaware that he was still there. Why would anyone want to murder Hakyeon? He seemed harmless enough as a spirit, and probably had been while alive as well. Unaware he'd spoken out loud, Leo shivered as he became aware they were both looking at him with odd expressions on their faces. 

"Why would anyone want to murder me?" Hakyeon repeated, still giving Leo an odd look. "He was jealous. He thought I was cheating on him, even though I wasn't." He sighed. "We weren't even dating, for one thing... but even if we _had_ been, I wouldn't have cheated on him, because I don't do that. I'm not that kind of person." 

"And as you probably heard, he killed Jaehwan because he thought he was going to go to the police," he added sadly. "Whether he would have done, I don't know, and it's a moot point now." Hakyeon himself didn't want to know the answer. He'd never asked and Jaehwan had never volunteered the information. "As I said, he's probably dead now too. You said it's been a long time..." 

"I don't know that for sure," Leo protested faintly, shaking his head. "I'm only going off the style of your clothes. I've never heard anything about any murders here, so perhaps it was covered up? The landlord never told me anything about it when I moved in, that's for sure." He wouldn't have taken the place if he'd known, desperate or not. "You never told me his name, by the way. The person who killed you..." 

"Would it really make a difference?" Hakyeon murmured, looking up at Jaehwan, whose expression was impassive as he returned the gaze. "It's been too long. Nothing would be solved by telling you." 

"Maybe you would both be at peace," Leo replied quietly, his expression earnest. "You could both move on, stop haunting this place. You'd be free. At least I hope so. It can't be very pleasant, stuck here on your own for years without anyone else." He wasn't finding it very pleasant, even though they weren't doing anything to hurt him or anyone else. 

"I have Jaehwan," Hakyeon said, looking away. "And he has me. Sure, we don't always get along, but..." 

"It's not the same thing, and you know it," Leo interrupted, shaking his head. "Are you afraid, Hakyeon?" It seemed ironic, that a spirit would be afraid. "It's not like anything can hurt you anymore..." The longer he spent talking to the young man (he refused to think of him as anything but...), the less afraid of him, or rather, them, he became, and the more sorry he felt instead. "I don't like the idea of either of you hurting like this." 

"You don't know anything about us," Jaehwan said coldly, glaring at Leo. "Save your do-gooding for someone who cares." Leo would have been angry with him except for the fact that Jaehwan's voice shook slightly. "Leave me, leave us alone." With that, he disappeared, leaving Hakyeon alone with Leo. 

Hakyeon sighed. "I'm sorry," he apologised softly, looking at Leo with a sad expression. "Please don't be upset with him. He's..." He shook his head and looked down at his hands. "Jaehwan has more reason than most to be upset about being like this. He didn't do anything to deserve this other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and friends with perhaps the wrong person, even if he didn't realise it at the time. And he's a very sensitive person, even if he tries to hide it." 

Leo shook his head. "I'm not angry with him, Hakyeon," he replied, sighing. "I feel sorry for you both, and I wish there was something I could do to help you, but when you won't let me..." He gave a helpless shrug of his shoulders. "There's nothing else I can do." 

"I'm sorry," Hakyeon apologised again, then stood up. "I'll leave you alone for tonight," he added, fading away slowly. "You look exhausted." 

Getting to his feet, Leo realised Hakyeon was right when he had to grab the flimsy handrail to haul himself up and keep himself upright as he climbed the stairs to his flat, clumsily letting himself in and flopping down onto his futon. He'd barely managed to get his shoes and jacket off, his keys falling out of his pocket somewhere in the semi-darkness. He had a lot to think about, but his mind was too tired, and had had enough, and Leo fell asleep not long after, still fully clothed. 

 

He was awakened the next morning by insistent banging on his door. "I'm coming," he grumbled, stumbling to his feet and going to the door to unlock it. When the banging continued, he said it louder. "I said I'm coming, dammit!" 

Pulling open the door, Leo was startled to see a disheveled-looking Ravi standing on his doorstep, still dressed in the clothes he'd been wearing the day before and angrier than he'd ever seen him. Dragging him inside, he stared at him. 

"What's wrong?" he asked, too confused to be angry with Ravi for waking him up. "You look like you're ready to spit nails or something." 

"He did it again, even after I told him not to," Ravi replied, his voice hoarse with rage. "I swear, Taekwoon, I seriously swear..." His hands were fisted by his side, shaking with his anger. "I don't know how long I can keep doing this. He has to keep saying and doing these things...."

"What, Ravi?" Leo was confused and didn't know what to say to make it any better. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Use your words..."

"I _am_ using my words," Ravi replied, glaring at him. "Lee fucking Hongbin is who I'm talking about," he practically shouted at the other man, tossing himself down onto the futon and throwing his hands over his head. "He's doing it again. Acting like a jealous boyfriend and I can't take it. We're not going out. We can't, when he won't even leave the fucking house!" 

"He has agoraphobia, you know that," Leo said, shrugging as he sat down beside the younger man, running a hand through his hair to try and calm him down. "He tries, you have to admit that. But he can't get any further than the door..." 

"I know he tries, but we're still not dating, so he has no reason to act like a jealous boyfriend. Especially when I've done nothing to give him any reason to act like it. I'm not seeing anyone else. I just went out for drinks after work like I sometimes do. I even told him beforehand, like any normal person does when they live with someone, out of courtesy." Ravi sighed. "But he still gives me the silent treatment, disappearing when I come home, and then when he does come out of his room, he makes rude and passive-aggressive comments..." 

"And then tells me to get the fuck out if I don't like it." Ravi looked over at Leo. "What am I supposed to do? I don't want to leave him, and I know he loves me in his own way..." The anger was slowly being taken over by pain and heartbreak, and Leo wasn't any more equipped to deal with that than the first emotion. "I just can't deal with his insane jealousy, Taek..." 

"I know," Leo murmured, sighing. Some of the things Ravi was saying stirred memories and it confused him. It sounded a lot like what Hakyeon had said the night before with the person who'd killed him and Jaehwan. But Hongbin wasn't the same person, surely. For one thing, Hongbin was young, and he was still alive. Or at least he thought he was. Now Leo was starting to have his suspicions. 

"Does Hongbin ever let you touch him?" Leo asked suddenly, startling Ravi into staring at him. "He's never let me touch him, but then again, I'm kind of the same way, so it's never been an issue for me before. I'm just curious." 

"Well, no, not really," Ravi said slowly, looking baffled by the question. "He's not really the touchy-feely type, but we knew that already when I first moved in. It was part of the silly rules he told us about, remember? Don't touch him, don't touch his stuff, and don't try to make him go out, that sort of thing..." 

He looked thoughtful. "He's not really boyfriend material, when I think about it, all these strange quirks he has," he added, turning over onto his back with his arm thrown over his eyes. "But when he's in a good mood, he can be really charming and cute, and he's so gorgeous it hurts..." 

"And you're in love with him even though you shouldn't be," Leo added gently, prodding his friend with a finger. "Hongbin is too unpredictable. I keep telling you that. He's my friend too, and if I can see that... so can you." 

"I know, I know," Ravi sighed, shaking his head. "But..." 

"No, Ravi," Leo insisted, pushing at Ravi to get him to sit up. "Let me guess. You guys fought all night and you didn't get any sleep at all, did you? And you came banging on my door this morning, on my day off..." He sighed. "Knowing I'd let you in because I'm nice like that, even though each time it happens, I swear it's the last. What am I going to do with you two?" 

"Talk to Hongbin?" Ravi turned to look at Leo pleadingly. "Make him back off? He listens to you." He pouted. "You're probably the only one he listens to, for that matter. I should be jealous..." 

Leo snorted. "You should be, but you won't," he murmured in reply. "Because you know full well we're just friends. I'd have more luck with you if we were anything more than just friends, for that matter..." He shook his head in amusement. "Fine, I'll talk to him, but I can't promise anything will come of it any more than any other time I've talked to him about it." 

He frowned, having seen movement out of the corner of his eye where there shouldn't have been. What was Hakyeon doing in his flat? And in daylight, no less? He thought spirits only haunted during the night hours. Had Hakyeon lived in his flat while he'd been alive? Leo shivered. He didn't want to think about that, but would have to ask and maybe tell Hakyeon to stick to the stairways if he was going to do his haunting. He didn't want Hakyeon to invade his private life too. 

Noticing something was off about Leo suddenly, Ravi peered up at him. "Is something wrong, hyung?" he asked, removing the arm from his eyes and finally sitting up. "You look weird. Like you've seen a ghost or something." 

"Just a bit preoccupied," Leo muttered, shaking his head and looking over at where he thought he'd seen Hakyeon, only to see nothing, not really surprised. "Why don't you go home and see if Hongbin's calmed down. I'll come over later and talk to him and hopefully that will help making things better, ok? But if nothing changes, you're going to have to look at finding somewhere else to live. You can't keep this up indefinitely. It's not healthy for either of you." 

"I know," Ravi said unhappily as he got to his feet and went to the door to put his shoes back on, his shoulders slumped in defeat. "But I love him. I can't help it. Even if we can't be together, I think part of me will always love him..." Turning to look at Leo as the older man came to the door to see him out, he gave him a tired smile. "Thanks for the help, and sorry to wake you so early. I owe you one." 

"Yes, you do," Leo chuckled softly, pushing him out the door gently. "Now go and make up with Hongbinnie, and tell him I'm coming later so he can clean up your mess." He ignored Ravi's cries of protest. "Just go..." Watching the other man make his way carefully down the stairs, and surreptitiously watching to make sure Jaehwan or Hakyeon didn't appear to 'help', Leo returned to his flat once the main door closed, only to be confronted by Hakyeon as soon as he entered the room. 

"You should have let him stay here," Hakyeon said as Leo closed the door, ignoring the way the young man jumped slightly at his words. "If this Hongbin is who I think he is, it's not safe for him." 

"What the hell, Hakyeon, you can't just do that!" Leo glared at Hakyeon, not a little freaked out. "I thought spirits only came out in the night, not during the day." He ran a shaking hand over his face. "And what the hell are you doing in my flat?" 

"This was _my_ flat," Hakyeon said pointedly, looking around at the small living space, and clearly not amused by what he was seeing. "It was a lot cleaner when I lived here." He sighed and sat down on the edge of Leo's futon. "Mind letting Jaehwan in?" 

"Yes, actually, I _do_ mind," Leo grumbled at him, though he went back and opened the door, just in time for Jaehwan to appear at it, giving Leo a strange look as he entered the small flat to stand beside Hakyeon. "So what exactly do you mean by thinking Hongbin is who you think he is? He's Ravi's sort-of landlord, if you count the fact that his parents own the house they live in..." 

Though they'd never actually met Hongbin's parents. He just told them they owned it, and their names were on the rental paperwork. Leo sighed, leaning against the now-closed door as he looked at Hakyeon and Jaehwan. 

"How do you know anything about Hongbin when you haven't even met him?" he asked tiredly, rubbing at his eyes. He was too tired for this shit. "Please stop being so cryptic. It's too early in the morning for this." 

Glancing at Jaehwan, Hakyeon sighed softly, his hands twisting in his lap. "If I'm right, your friend Ravi could be in a lot of danger right now," he said quietly. "Jaehwan and I were friends with Lee Hongbin... a long time ago. Too long ago for either of us to remember, as you recall, and now we're both dead as a result. So yes, I think you need to tell Ravi to come back before anything happens to him." 

He looked up at Leo with pain in his eyes. "Hongbin is the one I mentioned last night," he explained, pain lacing his voice. "The one who became unreasonably jealous for no reason and pushed me down the stairs... and then did the same to Jaehwan just because he was a witness." 

Leo stiffened, staring at them both in shock and dismay. Neither of them had any reason to lie to him, but how could they be certain their Lee Hongbin and Ravi's Lee Hongbin were one and the same person? "How do you know they're the same person though?" he asked almost desperately, not wanting to believe Hongbin was capable of murder. Or that he was... "And if you're right... somehow... Hongbin is also..." 

Jaehwan looked thoughtful. "Do you have any photos of him?" he asked, tilting his head. "Or anything like that. A birthdate? Any other personal details?" 

Pulling out his phone, Leo scrolled through the various photos he had until he found one that wasn't too blurry of Hongbin and Ravi, though oddly enough, most of them with Hongbin in them were too blurred to be really useful for anything other than to poke fun at his photo-taking skills. Passing it to them, he noticed their expressions as they saw the photograph, and it sent a sinking feeling through him. 

"His birthday is in September, he has an older sister, though we've never actually met her..." Leo tried to think. "We've never met his parents either. They're always travelling out of the country, he said... He always seemed angry with them for it, like they never paid him any attention, though he always seemed to have enough money because of it. Like they felt guilty for never contacting him and sent him money instead..." 

"We've never really been able to get much else out of him, other than he never leaves the house..." He glanced between the two spirits as they looked at each other, their expressions growing more and more grim as he spoke. "What? Why do you guys keep looking like that?" 

Gesturing at Hakyeon, Jaehwan sighed in resignation. "I don't know how, but he's the same person," he said soberly, looking at Leo steadily. "Show him, Hakyeon..." 

Hakyeon reached into his pocket and pulled out a leather wallet, opening it and taking out a worn photograph of a group of young men, and holding it out for Leo to see. It wasn't hard for Leo to pick out a smiling Hakyeon, Jaehwan with a goofy grin on his face, and to his surprise, Hongbin, with his characteristically charming smile, a somewhat possessive arm draped over Hakyeon's shoulder. Stepping back, Leo looked from Hakyeon to Jaehwan and back again, his mouth open as he tried and failed to find the words to express his feelings. 

"How?" he finally settled on, his back hitting the door once again as he slid down to land on his bottom on the floor, shaking his head in disbelief. It defied explanation really. "It's him, but how? He looks the same, but... it's just not possible." 

"Unless someone killed him too, and he's like us, stuck in that house," Jaehwan pointed out calmly in the face of Leo's growing hysteria. "And so is your friend if you don't get him out of there." 

"Especially if they've had a huge fight, like Ravi said, and Hongbin is that angry," Hakyeon added, worry in his voice. "That was how it started with Hongbin and I. And ended with my body at the bottom of the staircase, and Jaehwan's a few days later..." 

Fumbling for his phone as Hakyeon slid it back to him, Leo cursed under his breath as he called Ravi, waiting for the other man to pick up. When it went to voice mail, he cursed again. "Come on Ravi, pick up..." Trying again, he lurched to his feet. This couldn't be happening. Not again. If anything happened to Ravi, it would be on his conscience. 

"What do I do?" he asked, looking over at them as he reached for his keys and wallet. "I know you guys can't exactly come with me to reason with him, but is there anything I could tell Hongbin that might make him see reason? That might make him let Ravi go if he hasn't..." He swallowed heavily. "If he hasn't already done something..." 

"I don't know," Jaehwan murmured hesitantly, stepping back as Hakyeon got to his feet. "I'm not exactly the best person to ask, since I'm still pretty angry with him for what he did to me. I thought we were friends, and then he did this..." 

"But I forgive him for what he did to me," Hakyeon said softly, startling them both into staring at him. "I know it sounds strange, but I've had an awful lot of time to think about it, and there's no real use in holding a grudge. It hasn't solved anything, has it? We're still dead, and from the sounds of it, so is he. And in a lot of pain. It doesn't help, so I would just prefer to let it go..." 

"And I did love him, in my own way, much as it sounds like Ravi loves him too, in his way," he added with a fond smile. "As Ravi said, he can be incredibly charming, and funny, and sweet, when the mood takes him, and it makes the bad times worth it. It really does. That's what he needs to realise. That he's not all bad..." 

Jaehwan shrugged and looked at Leo. "Go and save Ravi," he said, making shooing motions. "Before it's too late..." 

Nodding, Leo pulled the door open and left, hoping he wouldn't be too late and that all he would find would be Ravi's body (or worse, nothing at all) in the house he shared with Hongbin. Barely keeping to the speed limit, his heart was in his throat as he drove out to the remote part of the city where Hongbin's house was, untouched by the growth that seemed to spill out into other areas, leaving this part forgotten by time. His car door slamming closed as he ran up to the door, Leo worried he was going to have to hammer on it to get Hongbin to let him in, but to his surprise, the door was slightly ajar, an ominous sign if ever he saw one. 

"Hongbin?" he called out, his voice shaking slightly. "Ravi? Where are you guys..." 

"Is something wrong, Leo?" Hongbin asked, appearing suddenly at the door to the kitchen at the other end of the hallway, making Leo grab at his chest in alarm. He smirked at Leo's expression. "You look like you've seen a ghost..." 

"Don't scare me like that, Binnie," Leo growled at him, shaking his head. "You're being a brat. Where's Ravi? He came over earlier but I sent him home..." He looked around, but everything seemed spotless, as it always was. "He said you guys had argued again..." 

Hongbin's expression hardened. "We did," he replied coldly. "But I don't know why he has to keep involving you in our problems. It's not something you can do anything about. No offense, hyung, but it's none of your business." He stayed where he was as Leo approached, watching the older man with wary interest. "What are you looking for?" 

"Where's Ravi?" Leo asked, nearly face to face with Hongbin now. Normally, Hongbin would have backed away, but now... "I know he doesn't have work today because we're both off. And you're acting weirdly, too, even given that you've had a fight with him. Has something else happened? Are your parents here?" 

"Why would you be asking about them so suddenly?" Hongbin asked, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. "They have nothing to do with me, I have nothing to do with them, it suits us all just fine. There's nothing wrong, I told you that already. Go home, hyung. There's nothing more you can do here, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't mess around in my affairs..." 

"Ravi isn't yours, Hongbin," Leo said as gently as he could, watching Hongbin's reaction. "And neither was Hakyeon." If he was expecting an explosive reaction, he certainly got one, as Hongbin's eyes went wide and his mouth opened and closed, his face going red with rage. "You had no right to do what you did to him..." 

"And you have no right to speak that name to me, **ever**!" Hongbin exploded, his voice louder than Leo had ever heard him in all the time he'd known him. "You know nothing about me, and have no right to criticise or lecture me about what I can or cannot do in my own home!" 

As Hongbin's anger rose, the lights began to flicker and the doors and cupboards all began to open and close of their own accord, but Leo was too tired to be afraid of Hongbin now. He just wanted Ravi back, safe and sound. And Hongbin couldn't hurt Hakyeon or Jaehwan where they were now. 

"You still shouldn't have killed him, or your friend Jaehwan," Leo continued softly, standing his ground as Hongbin glared at him, his eyes growing wilder with each word. "They didn't deserve to die, and neither did you..." 

"Oh but you're wrong, Leo," Hongbin replied, his voice deadly quiet. He began to walk towards Leo, making the young man walk backwards to get away from him, wary of what he'd do. "I _did_ deserve to die. I killed them, and I'm going to kill you too, because you know more than you should. But I won't kill Ravi. I'm going to keep him here with me, forever..." 

Blinking in horror, Leo held onto the bannister of the stairs as he reached it to keep himself upright as he stared at Hongbin, unable to believe what he was hearing. "What have you done, Hongbin? Where is he? Let him go, Binnie, please..." He shook his head, feeling the chill as Hongbin approached him. "He loves you. You don't need to keep him locked up to keep him with you. He'd do it anyway..." 

"No, he won't," Hongbin said almost sadly, drawing level with Leo and looking him in the eyes. "He'll leave me like Hakyeon did. Like Jaehwan would have done if I'd given him enough time. Like my parents did. But not now... I won't let him. He'll stay with me forever." 

"If your parents left you, who... how...?" Leo wondered, hoping to buy some time so he could reason with Hongbin, and maybe get him to tell him where Ravi was. Maybe he could get Ravi out on his own or something. Or get out and tell the police where to find him, if nothing else. He couldn't just let Ravi die here. "What happened after Jaehwan died?" He was careful not to use words that blamed Hongbin, even though they both knew Hongbin had killed him. 

Hongbin's lips twisted. "My parents somehow realised I'd killed them," he said, his voice bitter. "I don't know if it was something I said or did, or if it was something they'd said before I killed them, or what, but..." He sighed, looking away for a moment. "All I know is that a few days later... I died too. Then I heard my mother crying as my father cursed my existence while burying my body in the garden... Then they disappeared and I never saw them again."

"But because this house was mine, they could never get rid of it without my permission, so it's just been left to rot..." Hongbin laughed hollowly. "So it wasn't hard to call newspapers and rental agencies and pretend to be my father in order to find someone to keep me company and keep up the house, as long as they respected my boundaries. It was just hard to find someone who would, until Ravi..." 

He waved a hand. "And you know the rest of it, since you came with him." Hongbin looked thoughtful. "I can't say I really regret it, but at the same time, you've always been a bit troublesome. Too smart for your own good, and too ready to take Ravi's side over mine. I can't have that, Leo." 

"Ravi is my friend, Hongbin," Leo said, shaking his head. "What else would you have me do? I thought you were my friend too, and I am sorry for all this, but it's not my fault any of it happened. I don't know why you're like this, and I don't think you know either, but..." He sighed softly. "Hakyeon doesn't blame you, you know. He's forgiven you for what you did. He said he had a lot of time to think about it, and he knows you're hurting and he doesn't want that..." 

"Hakyeon doesn't know what it's like to be stuck here," Hongbin replied, shaking his head angrily. "To be left behind by everyone, cursed constantly for what I am, or for what I can't be..." He looked on the verge of tears, and Leo felt sorry for him. "To want what I can't ever have..." 

"He's stuck where he is too, Hongbin," Leo reminded him gently, reaching out before he remembered that he couldn't touch Hongbin, withdrawing his hand with a sigh. "So is Jaehwan. They're both trapped where they are, the same as you're trapped here. And neither of them can move on because they're hurting the same as you are. Maybe for different reasons, but..." 

"Did you ever think about Ravi?" he added softly, looking down at his feet. "How Ravi is going to feel knowing he's in love with someone who is dead? He won't ever be able to hold you, to have you hold him, do all those things lovers do with each other. It's tearing him apart enough as it is, Hongbin. He loves you and wants to be with you and he can't, even though he wants desperately to be." 

"If only it were as straightforward as a 'simple' case of agoraphobia," Leo sighed, shaking his head. "Then we could find someone to help, but this..." It made him want to cry, and as he looked over at Hongbin, it startled him when he saw the other man crying silently. "I honestly want to help you, even though you've done these things, Hongbin. But I don't know what to do. I don't want to do anything that would hurt Ravi..." 

"There is no help for me," Hongbin murmured through his tears, turning away from Leo. His desolate expression broke the older man's heart. "There's nothing anyone can do, is there? I'm dead..." His voice was choked. "Come..." 

A bit bemused by Hongbin's sudden change of heart, Leo warily followed him through the house and down into the basement, where he'd never been before. It was darker than the rest of the house, with only one meagre bulb to illuminate the darkness, but he could see a sectioned-off corner of the basement with what looked like a steel-built cage, a bit rusty from age, a bed with worn blankets on it behind the bars. Ravi lay on the bed, his eyes closed, though he opened them as Hongbin and Leo approached, sitting up with confusion and fear on his face. 

"Hyung?" he asked, going to grip the bars and looking from Hongbin to Leo as Hongbin stopped the older man about halfway into the room. "What's going on? What am I doing here, and... what are you doing here?" 

"I'm trying to get you away from here," Leo replied before Hongbin made a gesture that stopped him. Turning to stare at him, Leo suddenly realised his mistake. He hadn't seen, until it was too late, that there was another cage around the one Ravi was in, and now he was imprisoned too. "Hongbin! Let me out!" 

"I told you, Leo," Hongbin said quietly, reappearing outside the room he'd trapped Leo in, the steel door clanging shut and locking behind him before Leo could get to it to stop it. "There's nothing anyone can do, and now you're here too. You can keep Ravi happy for me for a while until you die, and then he's mine..." 

"Leo?" Ravi looked at him quizzically, shaking his head in bemusement. "What is he talking about. What's going on?" Had Hongbin just... He bit his lip, drawing blood that he wiped away with the back of his hand. It wasn't possible, was it? Hongbin couldn't be...? "Please..." 

"You saw, didn't you?" Leo sighed, going to sit on the floor as close to Ravi as he could get. "Hongbin is dead. He always has been, it seems. The whole agoraphobia/touch-phobia thing was just a cover..." He ignored the way Hongbin watched Ravi, his eyes sad and yet hungry at the same time. "He's also a murderer. He killed two innocent people, at least two that I know of, before his parents killed him to stop him from hurting anyone else." 

Looking at Hongbin, Ravi's expression was devastated. "Hongbin?" He grabbed tighter at the bars, this time to hold himself up, unable to believe what he was seeing and hearing. "What... you didn't do this, please tell me he's lying. Please... Hongbin." 

Hongbin sat next to the locked entrance to the room, his back to the wall, staring at the opposite wall as Ravi spoke. With every word the other man said, his shoulders jerked as though he was being struck until he was hunched over, his head in his hands. 

"I'm sorry, Ravi," he said, his voice muffled and sounding far away. "I had to. Hakyeon was going to leave me, and Jaehwan would have called the police eventually. He's not stupid." He realised what he'd said, then shook his head. "He wasn't. He would have done. I know... knew him. He might have been my friend, but he was a good man and would have turned me in..." 

"But instead, my parents turned on me and killed me." Hongbin gave a short, mirthless laugh. "So much for parental love, huh? They didn't turn me in. They killed me, just like I killed them, and then left me and this place to rot..." Grief and pain twisted his handsome features. "They never loved or wanted me in the first place, though. I was always a burden to them, and they never let me forget it. Why do you think there are these cages here? It's where I lived when I was alive, even though this is, or was, my house..." 

Suddenly on his feet with a speed that startled both Leo and Ravi, Hongbin glared at them, his face now twisted with rage. "This was _my_ house, and they locked me up in it as often as they could get away with it," he almost shouted at them as Ravi shrank back in horror. "Because I couldn't be controlled, they said. I wouldn't do what they wanted me to do. I wouldn't stop seeing Hakyeon. Or any of my other friends."

"And then they killed me. But then I found you, or you found me..." He was suddenly calm again, but both Leo and Ravi were still shocked and horrified by his violent mood swings and tried to keep as far away from him as they could under the circumstances. "And now I'm going to keep you here forever so you won't leave me too." 

Hongbin smiled sadly. "Leo can keep you company for a while until he dies..." he added, "though I have no idea how long that will be. I have no interest in keeping him alive. I just couldn't kill him where it would be noticed..." 

He ignored the sounds that were starting to be audible above their heads, like they didn't matter to him. And maybe they didn't. Nobody knew they were there, after all. Footsteps and shouts of Leo's and Ravi's names, along with his own finally caught Hongbin's attention, and his expression darkened. 

"Who dares to come into my house without my permission?" Hongbin snarled, disappearing to deal with the interlopers, much to Ravi and Leo's relief. At least now he was gone and they could breathe. 

Slumping to the ground, Ravi covered his face with his hands, his body shaking. "I don't understand," he said finally, his voice shaking with emotion. "How did I not know? There are things now that tell me I should have realised it sooner, but..." He leaned back against the bed, his knees drawn up against his chest. "I can't help it, but I still love him, Leo. What he must have gone through, the pain and loneliness that drove him to do the things he did." 

"I know," Leo said quietly, just as shaken as Ravi was, but also confused by the voices above their heads that were getting louder. He could hear Hongbin shouting, the sounds of his violent temper echoing through the house. "It doesn't excuse what he did, but I can still understand, at least a little, of why..." 

"But nothing will ever change the fact that Hongbin is still dead," he added softly, wishing the bars between them would vanish so he could hug his friend as Ravi began to cry quietly. "There's nothing either of us can do about that." He looked up as someone appeared at the entrance to the room, his expression wary in case it was Hongbin, but it wasn't. It was someone in the uniform of a police force he didn't recognise, and he got to his feet, gently nudging Ravi's foot between the bars for him to do the same. "Get up, Ravi. Someone's come to help..." 

Even with the help of the police, it still took a while before they could get the doors to the cages opened, the combination of the rusty locks and the thickness of the steel bars hindering their efforts at freeing the young men. But eventually they were freed, and after taking statements, Leo was allowed to go home, taking Ravi with him. Ravi didn't want to stay in that house on his own any longer, not that Leo could blame him. Where Hongbin had gone, they had no idea, but there was no guarantee he'd _stay_ gone and neither of them wanted to take any chances. 

 

His eyes red and swollen from crying, Ravi lay on Leo's futon with Leo laying beside him, staring at the ceiling blankly. "How did they know where we were?" he asked, unable to wrap his mind around that concept. All the police were able to tell them was that they'd been acting on an anonymous tip-off, but who would have known? The house had been in a remote area, and nobody else could have known what was going on. It just wasn't possible. 

"That would be because we told them," Hakyeon said cheerfully, grinning as Ravi gave a startled yelp, sitting up and looking around wildly. Jaehwan appeared beside him, smirking and waving at them both, though he left the speaking to Hakyeon. "You," he continued, gesturing at Ravi, "left your phone here, so we used it to call them. It made things so much easier, though it was hard to work out how to turn it on..." 

Jaehwan made a funny face at Ravi's expression, laughing outright at Leo's glare. "Oh come on," he grinned, draping himself over Hakyeon's shoulders and sticking his tongue out. "You guys make the funniest faces. You should see yourselves..." He shrugged as Leo continued to glare at him. "But anyway, it wasn't hard to get them to listen when we told them what was going on. I'm not sure why, but it seems there had been some weird shit going on there even before you moved in with Hongbin..." 

"They just couldn't do anything because there was no evidence," Hakyeon sighed softly. "Hongbin was always too smart for his own good, and made sure of it. Until now." He glanced at Ravi and made tutting noises of dismay at his expression. "I'm sorry," he said, looking apologetic. "I know it must hurt to hear about things he's done, but he wasn't always a bad person. He just had bad things happen to him that made him..." He sighed again and gestured helplessly. "Like that." 

"But I hope now that they'll have found his body..." Hakyeon trailed off, looking suspiciously like he was going to cry, and Jaehwan twisted around to put his arms around him consolingly. "I hope he'll find peace. Proper peace..." 

They were interrupted by Leo's phone ringing, and he answered it almost absently, startled to find it was the police again. He was even more startled by the news, his eyes going to Ravi, and then to Hakyeon and Jaehwan, and then back to Ravi again as the caller continued to speak. Finally closing the call, he sat back, his expression blank as he tried to process what he'd been told. 

"They found his body," he said tonelessly, looking over at Ravi as the other man gave a cry of pain and huddled in on himself at the news. "And they're waiting for you to tell them what to do, since apparently his sister died some time ago, and his nephew wants nothing to do with any of it." He sighed softly. "And it seems Hongbin..." Leo took a deep breath, then let it out shakily. "He left a will. Leaving almost everything to Ravi. The house and everything in it, and most of the money..." 

Ravi stared at him in shock. "He what?" Blinking at him, he shook his head. "Is that even legal?" His hands shook as he tried to hold his knees to his chest, everything just a bit too much for him to handle. "Can a ghost even make a will after the fact?" 

Leo shrugged. "I don't know, but they didn't seem to question it since the nephew wasn't interested in any of it. They said once the enquiries were finished, it's all yours." He swallowed heavily. "And mine." Aware they were all staring at him now, he smiled faintly. "For some reason, he left me a bit of money as well, and I am really confused by it..." 

"Especially since he seemed to hate me. Or at least resent me an awful lot," he added thoughtfully. "I don't know why, since my life isn't really much better than his seemed to be." He turned to Hakyeon and Jaehwan. "But what will you do now? Ravi is safe now, thanks to you. And hopefully Hongbin is finally at peace now too, again thanks to you..." 

"I think it's more thanks to you guys than to us," Hakyeon replied thoughtfully. "But I understand what you mean." He glanced at Jaehwan. "I don't know, really. I kind of like it here..." He grinned at the expression on Leo's face. "I'm teasing you." Sobering, he shrugged. "I guess it's time for me to move on too. I can't speak for Jaehwannie though. That's up to him." 

"Where you go, I go, idiot," Jaehwan murmured fondly, draping himself back over Hakyeon's shoulders with a cheeky smile. "Who else is going to keep you out of trouble?" 

"Get me _into_ trouble more likely," Hakyeon said wryly as he tried to pry the other man off him, ignoring the stares he was getting from both men sitting on the futon. After a few minutes of futilely fighting Jaehwan off, Hakyeon turned back to Leo and Ravi with a tired smile. "I guess this is where I say thank you, and it's time for us to go..." 

Leo blinked at him. "I didn't do anything," he said, looking bemused and not a little upset at this development. He'd gotten used to them in such a short time, it was going to be hard not seeing them anymore. "Do... you have to leave?" He knew it sounded stupid after he'd tried so hard to persuade them to move on, but he was going to miss them. 

"Awww, he's going to miss us, Hakyeonnie," Jaehwan crooned, making Leo frown at him. "Isn't that sweet?" He grinned back at Leo, knowing full well that Leo didn't mean it in the slightest. "We should pop in from time to time, just when he least expects it. Like when he's with a girlfriend or something..." 

"Don't _even_ think about it," Leo warned, his eyes narrowing as he rose off the futon, his hands out as though to strangle Jaehwan, the other man grinning and pretending to run away from him as Hakyeon looked on with a fond smile. 

While the two played around, Hakyeon went to sit beside Ravi, the other man looking lost and despondent. "I'm sorry," he apologised again, trying not to scare him too much. "Hongbin wasn't a bad person, he really wasn't. I want you to know that. He just... he had problems." He looked down at his hands. "I loved him too, but I couldn't deal with his jealousy. Especially when we weren't officially dating. We couldn't, back then. Neither his parents, nor mine, would allow it, and I was young and stupid..." 

Ravi shook his head. "It's not really much different now," he said quietly, not looking at Hakyeon. "We're not much freer to love who we want, though things are changing, little by little. But I love him, and I know he loved me. I do believe that. But I don't understand why people do things like that to others. Hurt them until it warps them like it did to Hongbin." 

He shook his head again, looking up as Leo returned to put his arms around him. "But I have a feeling he _is_ gone now, truly gone. At peace now, as you said... and..." Choking on his words, Ravi began to cry again, burying his face in Leo's chest as he sobbed helplessly. "At least I can be happy for that. He isn't hurting anymore." 

Hakyeon looked up at Jaehwan and gave a meaningful nod of his head, the other man looking suddenly sober and thoughtful instead of playful as he had mere moments before. "I'm glad he's not hurting anymore either," he said gently, taking Jaehwan's hand. "And now it's our turn to go..." He smiled softly as the two men looked up at them, and with a nod at Jaehwan, they both began to fade away until only Leo and Ravi were left in the room. 

Letting Ravi cry himself out, Leo ignored the tears on his own face as he cried for the young men who'd been so cruelly abused by fate. What their lives might have been like if things had turned out differently. It was a moot point now. Putting his arms around Ravi and holding him tightly, Leo bowed his head and closed his eyes. 

 

It was a few weeks before the final paperwork came through, and Leo was sitting on the futon when Ravi came up with the post, a huge evelope in his hands, a puzzled expression on his face. They'd both lost weight in the time since their ordeal, and Ravi had never gone back to the house to collect his things, preferring to leave it to others to do for him. As it was, he'd had to put most of it in storage, since Leo's flat wasn't big enough for him, let alone both of them and their things, so they had to make do. 

"I don't know what this is about, but it's addressed to us both, and it's in Hongbin's writing," he said, his hand shaking as he held the envelope out to Leo to open. "I can't... I can't face it. Can you open it?" 

Nodding silently, Leo took the envelope from him and opened it carefully, sliding out the papers and photographs that were stuffed into it with a bemused expression. 

"What...?" 

He sifted through the mess in his lap. There was an envelope with Ravi's name on it, one with his name on it which he stuffed under his knee, and the rest of it seemed to be a jumble of things that made no sense to him. Sorting through the photographs, he found they were all of Hongbin when he was younger and looked at least a little happier, though a few were of when he was with Hakyeon and Jaehwan, his expression more closed-off by then and not as carefree. Where he'd gotten these from, Leo had no idea, but he passed them to Ravi without a word. 

"Do you want me to open this?" he asked, holding up the envelope with Ravi's name on it, and at the answering nod, he opened it and unfolded the paper, handing it to Ravi to read, having judged from looking at the first few lines that it was far too personal for him to read it, even with Ravi's permission. 

Instead, he busied himself with the other paperwork that had come with the photographs, the deed to the house and a copy of Hongbin's will in his strangely neat handwriting catching Leo's eye. Scanning it, it seemed to be exactly what the police officer had told him weeks before, and he put it aside for the moment, glancing over at Ravi and unsurprised to see him in tears, holding the letter to his chest. Putting a comforting hand on his knee, Leo gave what he hoped was an encouraging smile. 

"Will you be ok?" he asked softly, concern in his eyes as he looked at Ravi, the other man wiping at his eyes with the corner of his shirt and making Leo sigh at him. 

"I'll be fine," Ravi replied, his voice wavering. "Eventually." He sighed heavily. "What did he say to you?" 

"I haven't read it yet," Leo shrugged, not really in any hurry to find out. If he was honest with himself, he was scared. He didn't want to feel Hongbin's anger again, even from a written page. "I was just looking at this stuff..." 

"I want to know what he wrote to you," Ravi insisted, poking at Leo's leg. "It won't be anything bad. I promise." 

"How can you promise something like that?" Leo scoffed, though he retrieved the envelope from under his knee and opened it warily, reading the letter Hongbin had written him carefully. 

_Dear Leo,_

_I'm sorry for everything that happened between us. It wasn't how I wanted things to end, but maybe it was for the best. I'm glad Ravi has a friend like you. Maybe if I'd had someone like you sooner, I wouldn't have... But then we'll never know now. I'm still sorry, and I hope someday you'll be able to forgive me._

_I know it's not much, but I've made arrangements for you to have an income of your own so you won't have to live in that shithole flat. He showed me the pictures of it and I recognised it at once. Hakyeon used to live there... I hated it even then, but he didn't have any money either and wouldn't allow me to help him. I know it won't ever make up for everything I've done, but I hope it will help you... so you don't become like me. Twisted and warped beyond help._

_Hongbin._

Leo was unaware that he was crying until Ravi put his hand over his in concern, invading his personal space and making him shrink back in surprise. 

"What?" he asked hoarsely, rubbing at his face and turning away, his cheeks pink with embarrassment. He was curious to find out just how much Hongbin had left him, since he hadn't really paid much attention to that part of things and it hadn't been specified by the officer who'd called. 

Rifling through the papers in his lap again and ignoring Ravi's attempts at getting him to talk, Leo sucked in a breath, his eyes wide as he read the relevant lines. This was what Hongbin considered 'not much'? 

"What's wrong?" Ravi asked, worried at Leo's actions. Just what had Hongbin said to him? "What did Hongbin say? Hyung?" 

"Have you read Hongbin's will?" Leo asked, his voice faint. He felt like he was going to fall over. Just how much money did Hongbin have? Where had it all come from? "He's... I don't understand him. I honestly don't." He shook his head and handed Ravi the papers in his lap, as well as the letter Hongbin had written him. It wasn't as though it was personal. Not like the one meant for Ravi. 

But it meant they both would be able to live more comfortably than they had been doing, and hopefully would start to recover, even if they would never be able to forget what had happened to them. As if anyone could forget anyone like Hongbin. 

Or that it had all begun with a man sitting on the stairs. A man who was not there...


End file.
